St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-29
SAM STICKS LETTER.
He Runs Up Against a Confiding
TenderfOOt From Jersey.

l. TIC STedU uuc1ne VI cOilNtTSdtIOll III
North Dakota, and Fargo especially, has
been the land question, and the line to
the land office began to form the night
of the Goth, and many were rolled up in
blankets and slept on the line that night
so as to be ready fol- filing in the morn
ing. 1t was estimated that 1000 men
were in the city Oh that errand, and the
crowds and full hotels with cots in
parlOrS and halls reminded one of the
boom days, sure enough. But there
was one prominent feature lack
ing, and that was the ''tender-
foot" The tenderfeot is an insect
(as Josh Billings might say, that is
born of special condition of things, as
the mugwump, for instance, and when
those conditions pass away that created
him, behold, he is gone, like the fog in
the morning or mirage on the prairie.
The tenderfOot was the child of the
Western boom. He was of no particu-
lar nationality, color or tongue, nor was
party. lie had heard of the great West
with its wonderful resources, and he
had few dollars, perhaps, with which
he came West to make his for
tune or to add to compe-
tence already obtained at his home.
The most striking characteristic these
individuals possessed was their mOnu-
mental credulity. They'd believe any
thing after they'd Leen in the territory
tWenty-fOur hours. An amusing Incl
dent illustrating this characteristic
came under my personal observation in
the summer of 1881, think it was. l
find, by the way, men of uncertain age
fall as easily into "reminiscences as those
of the fair sex carefully shun them. |
was seated in weSt-bound passenger
train pulling out of Fargo, and as the
coaches were well filed, was not
WiStfully at my seat, part of which was
vacant, except as to valise, and 1 gra-
ciOusly made room for him, and he
thanked me kindly in nasal drawl
that was not English, yeOu kneauw,"
but was Jersey, you bet" and as he
scanned me closely and my gray hair
and Sedate manner-I pride myself in
my Sedate manner-Seemed to inspire
him with confidence; in few moments
we were in easy conversation, and from
the old chestnut of weather the talk
turned to the country through
which we were travelling, or to
speak more properly, over which
we were travelling, as dead
level country like this gives one the
sensation of flying where no cuts OF hills
intervene to break the mOnotOny. told
him the regulation stories of the ease
with which the soil was prepared for
crop, and the certain yield of 80 to 40
bushels of No. hard to the acre and the
certainty of 81 per buShel some time
during the year, and. with many a
drawing exclamation of wonder, he
took it all in, in regular tenderfoot fash
ion. and seemed hungry for more. We
were passing the Dalrymple farm at the
time and l casually remarked that they
had made some very successful expert
mentS raising oranges and bananas at
the Dalrymple farm, and the Jersey
man fairly jumped with eager amaze
ment, and l haZarded the remark that
they would have thousand trees in
bearing in another year.
This fairly made him wild. He said
he had $4,000 he intended to stick into
this country somewhere, and he wasn't
going to lose any time about it, He
seemed charmed with my company, and
got off at CaSSeltOn with me and at once
insisted in hiring carriage and driv-
ing to the Dalrymple farm to see
the embryo orange and banana planta-
lions. L plead business engagements
and sent him off alone. quieting my
conscience the while with the thought
that he'd get his moneys worth of sight
seeing anyway. as it was in the midst of
harvest, and the sight of the great
wheat fields being rapidly cut by great
numbers of self-binderS and thresher
almost at once, was one well worth see
ing, even though his sight was not
greeted by luXuriant groves of oranges.
l must own to feeling of trepidation at
meeting him OH his return as he was
bigger than l was and had an exceed
ingly serious way of looking at me that
made me nervous, and l hoped a con-
venient freight might come along before
his return.
But was doomed to meet him, and in
the hotel after dinner, i felt something
like a sledge hammer blow on my
shoulders, and l knew inStinctively that
it was the Jersey man, and readjusting
my almost dislOcated shoulder, l met
his good natured gaze and his eXclama-
ton of "YOu're the COLL darn
dest liar l ever struck and
l breathed easier and he
freely forgave me and admitted it was
one of the most wonderful things he
had ever seen even with the oranges
left out, and he regretfully babe me
goodbye; and Eve often wondered if he
got back to Jersey" with his $4,000.
The boom days are rapidly getting to
be in the far past now, and as that tidal
wave of crazy speculation and inflated
values receded it left many a wreck be-
hind, but out of the ruins new enter
prises have arisen that are in keeping
with the demands of the country and
the times, and the little healthy grow
ing towns of this rich valley are going
forward as steadily as time, on sound
financial basis, and the future of this
country is assured. And the time is not
twenty years away when a section of
this Red river land will be compe-
tence for man to leave his family.
SAM SLICK.